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The commercial real estate brokerage market is special and unique. It is nothing like residential property; you are working with a different type of property owner, occupant, and investor. Their motivations are entirely different than people acting or investing in residential property.

The 7 Clear Facts to Know

Having seen many different property cycles and trends over the years, I have noted 7 specific things that are more important than anything else in commercial real estate brokerage. Here they are:

Know your market comprehensively – Get to understand what is happening in your local area by street, by property type, and by location. There are differences to observe and collate. Information will give you the edge when it comes to negotiating. Record the facts about the market and what is happening so you can control and change the thinking of clients and prospects as they seek to negotiate on listing, selling, buying or leasing.

Always connect with your clients – Your clients and prospects are the lifeblood of your real estate business; some clients only go in and out of the property market a few times, but when they do they require real help. Understand who they are, what they own, and what challenges they may be facing in the local property market. Your ability to predict the pressures that they may be experiencing will give you the edge in achieving a property result.

Always find new people to put in your database – You need a reasonable volume of people in your database and client list. Over the months and years people come and go from the market, and that change will influence your client list. Connect with your existing people regularly so you know when things are changing for them; be there when they need you. Fill your database with new people at the same time to replace redundancy liquidity problems in your existing database.

Convert your listings exclusively – It is very hard to be a top agent if you do not convert your listing stock exclusively. Your conversions to exclusivity will lift when you are the top agent in the location and when you can show that you are the person pulling in the results locally. That is a deliberate personal marketing process.

Devote at least half your day to marketing and business generation – Don’t take too long to learn this fact; don’t get ‘swamped’ with other people taking too much of your precious business time. You are essentially a person that relies on just two things; your listings, and your client list. Market yourself daily into and around those two things.

Practice what you do and say – Many client and property conversations will take an unusual turn when you least expect it. Your ability to converse flexibly and directly no matter what the negotiation or inspection conversation creates, will help you greatly. You can practice those factors to fast track your results.

Grow your local property knowledge so you can move into and through difficult conversations on property matters and challenges. Real facts from the market will help you counter or explain what is happening with a listing and a property type.

Local property knowledge will help you gain the advantage in any property discussion. Confidence will come to you when you understand the trends and challenges of the property market locally, and you can talk about those things in a productive way.